SAN ANTONIO — LaMarcus Aldridge had 22 points, Bryn Forbes added 20 and San Antonio rallied for a 120-111 victory over the New York Knicks on Wednesday night.
- Murray returns from ACL injury
- Spurs Jesus speaks on retirement, season expectations
- Longtime fan expresses excitement about young squad
The Spurs outscored the Knicks 37-27 in the final quarter after rookie RJ Barrett rallied New York from a 16-point deficit in the first half. Barrett scored 21 points on 9-for-13 shooting with five rebounds and two assists in 37 minutes.
“You’ve got to keep putting it on them,” Barrett said. “Just like we’re not going to quit, they’re not going to quit either.”
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The Knicks have pinned a great deal of hope on Barrett, the No. 3 overall draft pick out of Duke. The Spurs are similarly counting on Dejounte Murray, who played in his first game since tearing his right ACL in a preseason game last October.
“I’m blessed, I’m thankful,” Murray said. “I put in the work, but I’ve got a lot of work to do. A year ago today I was at home, I couldn’t walk, and a year later I’m playing. So, I’m thankful.”
Longtime Spurs fan and baseline bum Jerry told Spectrum News that players like Murray have the potential to grow into something like what the Big 3 became.
“The thing that excites me most is just having a bunch of new players,” he said during halftime. “Since the early 2000s, it’s been Tim, Tony, Manu but now we got a brand new set of people. We got Dejounte, we got Derrick, we got Lonnie. It’s a whole new young team and it’ll be nice to them develop and grow from scratch like the Big 3 did in the early 2000s.”
Murray had 18 points, including a 3-pointer with five minutes remaining that put San Antonio up 105-97. The 6-foot-5 point guard had six assists and eight rebounds.
“I thought he was aggressive, tried to do what we wanted to do and played pretty good defense,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “Probably needs to take care of the ball a little bit better, but overall after being out so long, he’s come a long way pretty quickly.”
Murray had four turnovers and San Antonio committed 21 as a team, which led to 32 points for New York. The Spurs did not have any turnovers in the fourth quarter, however. According to Popovich, turnovers happened because of human error.
“Me and [Tim Duncan] were talking, when a team turns the ball over that much you pretty much lose the game but we got a lot to work on. It’s the first game, but we got a win so, it was sloppy bad, but we got a win,” Murray said.
Superfan Spurs Jesus said he expects the team to head back to the playoffs this year, emphasizing the return of players like Murray and Aldridge. He told us besides having a healthy squad, he’s excited to have Duncan as an assistant coach plus the highly anticipated Tony Parker jersey retirement set for November.
Spurs Jesus is celebrating his 10th year as the noted superfan and said this when asked what motivates him to represent San Antonio basketball each year:
“The Spurs family goes beyond just a hashtag or a saying, it’s true. When you’re in the AT&T Center, me and my wife walk around, it’s like being at a family reunion. You go to a game on Monday and then go to a game again on Wednesday, everyone’s giving you hugs and handshakes like you haven’t seen them in a year.”
When asked about retirement, he said he doesn’t have any definite plans yet but he hopes his young son is able to take over in about 17 years.